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Alwars-Devotional Mystics of Tamil land. Sri vaishnava tradition of south India is unique in that they are ubhaya vedantins. The advantage &credit of churning the essence of vedas & rendering in tamil goes to the twelve alwars who were devotional mystics.Their rendition of 4000 hymns are now considered as Tamil Veda/Dravida Veda/ The rendition of swami Nammalvar one of the twelve alvars is considered as sama Veda. **Tradition places alwars centuries before birth of christ. But history & evidences take them much later. These mystics lived between 3rd century AD till early 9th century AD. It is in the ninth century that sri nawdhamuni collected this in the form of prabhandhams(meaning collection).He did the work of veda vyasa. Even today the Sri vaishnavaites consider themself to three munis -munitraya sampradaya(nawdhamuni,yawmunamuni,rawmawnujamuni). The renditions of alwar saints equated to vedas they are recited along with veda parayanam in all the vaishnavaite temples of the south. The name of the twelve alwars : *Poigai alwar. *Bhoothath alwar. *Paey alwar. *Paeri alwar. *Awndal(female). *Madhura kavi alwar. *Thirumangai alwar. *Kulasekara alwar. *Thiru pawn alwar . *Thondar adi podi alwar. *Thiru mazhisai alwar. *Nammawlvar. **It is said that after the departure of alwars their renditions went to secluse & were not to be found in society.Then Sri nathamuni the first Sri vaishnava acharya By his yogic vision came in contact with swami nammalvar whom revealed the entire 4000 hymns of divya prabhandhams.Nathamuni Samvardhitha yawmunamuni samvardhitha rawmawnuja muni samrakshitha. **It was swami Rawmawnuja who finally made the recitation part of temple ritual alongside Vedas. Let me talk a little about swami nammalvar who is considered super mystic &Even as kalki Avatar. Born in kurugoor A place in the southern bank of river tamrabharani in a family of vishnu worshippers. The names of his forefathers upto seven generation upwards isrememberedaskaraiyar,porkaraiyar,chenkannan,sentawmaraikannan,achyutar ,chakrapawniyar,arntawnkiyartiruvaluthinadar.
kurugoor is said to have
got its name from an incident recorded.Brahma(The creator god & one of
the trinity)desired to have a place for worship of lord vishnu the protector
god. Lord vishnu inturn directed him to a place where the shrine of adhinath
in the river of tamraparani & when Brahma returned from there after the
blessing of adhinath vishnu became the perceptor(guru & called in tamil as
kuru)for brahma & instructed him for worship.This place came to be called
as kurukapuri.
His parents for a long time did not have a child. Therefore they worshpped the lord at tirukurungudi. The lord vaishnava nambi blessed them with a son.GoD assured them that he will himself descend as their son. The child was born in karkata lagnam in month vaisaka in bhahudhanya year.On the full moon day,friday.Surprisingly the child never cried nor opened its eyes after birth.The parents took to the shrine of adhinath on 12th day & named maran.A name quite apt for a child quite opposed to its behavior.Surprisingly from the temple the child crawled to the tamarind tree& sat beneath it.The parents brought the cradle & suspended there.Child remained motionless .Maran remained there for 16 years.Guruparampara describes that under the instruction of the lord visvaksena came down to him & instructed the esoteric srivaishnavism.Since the god told the parents that he will descend as their son it is but to believed as god in the form of maran.He did not allow sata vayu @ the time of birth to entangle him so satagopan. It is important to note that maran did not uttre a single word uptoage of 16 until he met his disciple madurakavi.He lived upto 35 years.
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